Chapter 124: Such a Clever Design—It's a Shame to Use It Only Once

Yu Dazhang sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window in a daze.

Ye Lin didn't ask where he was going this time either; she just waited quietly beside him.

To find clues, first use process of elimination… Yu Dazhang seemed to be spacing out, but in truth his mind was racing.

Hotels—they definitely wouldn't go there.

Any legitimate hotel requires ID registration, and the lobby, hallways, and other public areas have surveillance cameras.

With the National Security Bureau's methods, a single facial recognition scan would track them down.

Small inns that don't require ID—they'd be even less likely to stay there.

Yu Dazhang himself couldn't stand that kind of hot, humid, filthy environment, let alone three pampered second-generation rich kids.

If they could really endure that kind of hardship, they wouldn't have gone so madly ruthless.

Analyzing it from their perspective, they'd rather risk fleeing than stay in a place like that.

By that logic, camping in the wild can also be ruled out.

Conventional ideas like hiding out with relatives or friends don't even need to be considered.

The National Security Bureau's investigation records show all these conventional investigative methods have already been tried once.

Where else could they go?

What kind of place could even National Security personnel not find?

Could it be…

The blind spot right under the lamp!

Yu Dazhang's eyes suddenly widened.

To evade the National Security Bureau's pursuit, apparently only this method would work.

"Go to that private hospital." Yu Dazhang said to Ye Lin.

Ye Lin gave a slight nod and drove straight for the hospital.

The two of them quickly arrived at their destination.

The entire hospital was still under lockdown, with armed police guarding every entrance.

After showing their credentials, Yu Dazhang went straight to the nurses' lounge on the fourth floor.

The area had been cordoned off with its own police line, and the curtain that had been blocking the lifting platform inside had been fully drawn open.

"You suspect they're hiding here?" Ye Lin asked curiously, standing beside him.

When Yu Dazhang said he was going to the hospital, she had already figured out it was the blind-spot-under-the-lamp trick.

This was indeed something the task force had overlooked.

Because nearly all the police Songhai could muster were here, under such circumstances the hospital simply couldn't hide anyone.

And the facts bore that out.

Now everyone from the entire hospital had been sent to the detention center; apart from police, there was no one else here.

"I didn't come here to look for people." Yu Dazhang stared at the hydraulic lifting platform in front of him, gesturing with his hand as he spoke:

"Such a clever design—it's a shame to use it only once."

Hearing this, Ye Lin also turned her attention to the lifting platform.

After a moment of thought, she asked:

"Drilling a hole in the floor slab and using the lifting platform to connect to the hospital bed above—how does that even qualify as clever?"

There was one more thing she didn't mention: an extra load-bearing wall had been built next to the lifting platform.

In her view, that was done purely for safety considerations.

Once a hole is cut in the floor slab, the original load path and rebar layout are locally severed, causing the overall stiffness of the slab to drop.

The wall added afterward was actually a form of reinforcement.

"That's because you're looking from below." Yu Dazhang explained:

"The bottom is the answer; the top is the riddle."

The two of them then went up to the emergency room on the fifth floor.

Yu Dazhang pointed at the hospital bed inside and said:

"If you hadn't seen the structure below, would you ever guess this bed is the entrance?"

Ye Lin stared at the bed for a while, then walked closer and circled around it.

She frowned in thought for a moment, then said:

"I finally understand why you called it clever."

"There's no switch to be found here that could activate this entrance."

"And this kind of electric hospital bed sits flush against the floor—no one would think to move it."

"Even if you did move it, the floor beneath has been disguised."

"Looking from below, the design doesn't seem difficult, but looking from above, it's airtight."

"The person who designed this left every loophole on the floor below."

At the same time she understood Yu Dazhang's true purpose in coming here. Exactly—such a design used only once really is a shame.

Five years and never discovered—they must believe this hiding method is the safest.

"I'll arrange a full inspection of every room in the hospital right away."

Ye Lin said, pulling out her phone to make the call.

"No need." Yu Dazhang quickly spoke up to stop her:

"They won't be hiding inside the hospital."

"Why?" Ye Lin asked, looking at him in confusion.

She realized she was having a bit of trouble keeping up with the train of thought of this fatty in front of her.

It was the method he had mentioned that wouldn't be used only once, yet it stopped him from conducting a full search of the hospital.

If they don't hide it in the hospital, where else could they hide it?

"You don't really understand the whole case yet," Yu Dazhang explained.

"This place is only where they obtain the stem cells, but that doesn't mean it's also where they use them."

Please... save.... 6... 9... book....!

His meaning was very clear.

If those three people had a hiding place inside the hospital, they wouldn't have gone to the trouble of transporting the stem cells in a 4.2-meter box truck.

Wouldn't it be more convenient to just do the separation and injection right at the hospital?

A cunning rabbit has three burrows.

The other side must have prepared a hiding spot in advance.

If something happened at the hospital, they would hide in that place, then wait for the forces behind them to smooth everything over.

Even if it ultimately couldn't be smoothed over, they could wait for things to blow over and find a way to flee overseas.

As long as they weren't caught, no one could do anything to them.

Why can't ordinary people hide?

Setting aside connections and background, just the problem of eating alone is something you couldn't solve.

If you want to survive, you have to go out and interact with people.

Now the wanted notices combine online and offline, the rewards are all public, and you could be reported at any moment.

Walking around with a bounty of 500,000 on your head — get it?

Ye Lin hadn't been directly involved in handling the case, so she didn't understand the entire investigation process.

If she had known the purpose of the 4.2-meter box truck, she wouldn't have thought the hospital was the hiding place.

Back in the car, Yu Dazhang once again opened the national security investigation records.

After ruling out in his mind every location he could think of, he finally fixed his gaze on a shop name.

Ruicheng Medical Equipment Specialty Store.

This was where Lu Zhongxin and the others had carried out the arrest operation.

It was also the storage point for the stem cells.

Yu Dazhang pointed at this shop name and said to Ye Lin:

"Go here."

"Okay." After Ye Lin agreed, she glanced once more at the address on it.

Half an hour later, the jeep stopped at the door of the specialty store.

This place had also been cordoned off with police tape, with two officers standing guard outside.

It was already past six in the evening by then; the afterglow of the sun shone into the shop, making it especially bright.

After showing their credentials, the two walked into the store.

According to the investigation, the owner of this shop had rented the property to an out-of-towner six years ago.

The lease was for ten years, paid in one lump sum, and after that he never saw the renter again.

The owner also provided the other party's ID number and the original rental contract.

Subsequent investigation revealed that the other party's identity information did not match the owner's description.

This indicated that the ID presented by the renter back then was a forged fake document.

"Six years ago…" Yu Dazhang murmured to himself, recalling the national security investigation records as he spoke:

"The timing matches. It's very likely the same person who planned it all."

(End of this chapter)